Punishing PvP Activity In PvP Games

I was reading the Albion Online State of the Game and came across this part:

Red zones will be full loot PvP zones that do not contain any claimable territories. Red zones will be subject to a crime and reputation system that makes sure that killing peaceful players - in particular, if they are zerged down - has more consequences for the attackers.

No part of that makes me more interested in Albion Online.

This chain of logic seems to happen often in MMO games:

  1. Make hardcore PvP game because it’ll (I guess?) attract a lot of players.
  2. Notice players complaining about getting killed unfairly in hardcore PvP game.
  3. Add systems to constrain people from killing each other in hardcore PvP game.
  4. Wonder why everyone leaves the game.

What is the point of putting full-loot, open-world PvP in a game if you’re going to punish players for killing and looting people?

I was listening to the GWJ Conference Call talking about The Division and there seems to be a similar system in there. It’s super dangerous in the Dark Zone because anyone can kill you but oh, by the way, if they do they’ll get a bounty on their head and everyone in the game will get bonus points for hunting them down and taking their stuff*. Say what? Who’s going to sign up for that?

I can only assume this is yet another misguided attempt to get PvP players and PvE players to buy the same game.

* I don’t know if that’s exactly right, but it was something along those lines.

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